ABOUT
Bleet! Is a collaborative project run by Ben Sargent, Alice Harry and Sarah Cohen.
To give forth - to offer a position
To babble - to grapple with language
The cry of a sheep/goat or similar sound - to consider the sonic
Foolish, complaining talk - to commit to making noise and being heard
Bleet began life as a zine, conceived by three friends. The publication was initially created in order to generate a shared physical space within which we were free to ‘bleet!’. A vessel or a wishing well in which we could place our thoughts, our desires and our half-formed attempts to try to understand or to try to get close to.
As the project progressed and we explored our relationship with text and language, we began to explore the ‘noise’ that language makes, how it resonates in our bodies and how it connects us to other bodies. Le Guin suggests that literature is a ‘social act’ and so we considered how Bleet! might leap off the page and to enter into a shared place of utterance. This is how Bleet!’s live events were born; a place to combine the performative nature of language, the creation of the sonic and perhaps most importantly, the act of listening.
The first dictionary definition of the word bleet/bleat is, ‘to give forth’ - we consider this as an offering of commune, to give forth a place for our shared pursuits.To bleet/bleat is also ‘to babble’; an attempt to grapple with language, a place in which we allow slippage and repetition through our attempts to express. Perhaps most recognisably to bleet/bleat is described as, ‘the cry of a goat, sheep or similar sound’, we take this definition as our cue to consider the sonic beyond the linguistic, to consider music, noise and oscillation as forms of communication. Finally to bleet/bleat is described as, ‘foolish complaining talk’. This we take as our commitment to foolish ideals, to being critically engaged, to making noise and to being heard.
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Bleet! Is a collaborative project run by Ben Sargent, Alice Harry and Sarah Cohen. The project is not for profit and all funds made go to the artists and back into the project. Funds are used to pay artists, print and distribute zines, to secure event spaces and equipment and to market events. We aim to be as transparent as possible with our costing process and at current, the project is funded solely by us. We are looking into funding options but at present the budget is very small and we want to be as honest with artists about what we can provide at this time. We are a collective who are committed to being fair within our means. Our main objective is to create a community of musicians, performers and artists that might connect, collaborate and benefit from being a part of an interdisciplinary approach to creation.